Everybody is a contemporary adaptation of Everyman, a play from the 15th Century. Everyman is an often-cited example of a morality play, which was a popular entertainment form in 15th and 16th century Europe. Morality plays often used archetypal, abstract characters to spread messages about Christian teachings. These characters often engaged in a kind of combat to win over the soul of the human being protagonist. The full title of Everyman emphasizes this narrative action: "Here begin[s] a treatise how the high father of heaven send[s] death to summon every creature to come and give account of their lives in this world and is in [the] manner of a moral play.

While the play draws most closely from the text of Everyman, Jacobs-Jenkins is keen to point out that Everyman itself is an adaptation of a Dutch play called Den Speyghel der Salicheyt vail Ekkerlzjc, which seems to also be an adaptation of a Buddhist fable!

In Everybody, Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins has adapted the story of Everyman for a contemporary society grappling with life influenced by climate change, racism, capitalism, religion, and identity politics. Throughout his work Jacobs-Jenkins draws from “a range of contemporary and historical theatre genres to engage frankly with complicated issues around identity, family, class, and race” (“Branden Jacobs-Jenkins - MacArthur Foundation” 2016). Jacobs-Jenkins' authorial mission lends itself well to the structure of a morality play, as the audience confronts questions of their own life choices in connection with Everybody's narrative arc. Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins developed Everybody during a residency at New York's Signature Theatre in 2017, partly in response to the 2016 USA Presidential election. His other works include Neighbors, War, Appropriate, An Octoroon, Gloria, and Girls.